Historic threat

Historic threat

The questions raised following the unconfirmed leak regarding proposed changes to the national curriculum are broader than the threat to Mary Seacole (Hideously diverse Britain, G2, 7 January). Far from Seacole and Nightingale being in conflict as topics of history, if these changes are implemented, neither of their stories will be taught to our schoolchildren. Currently, "Why we remember Florence Nightingale" is a significant part of key stage 1, and she is covered again when children learn about the Victorians in key stage 2. This threat to Nightingale suggests a concentration solely on large-scale political and military history and a fundamental shift away from social history. It is not only black people in history such as Seacole who will be written out, but women and reformers in history more generally.Sue SheridanChair of trustees, Florence Nightingale Museum

• Jackie Ashley asks who remembers 1913 (As the coalition plods on, the fight is Labour's to lose, 7 January). We all should, since in that "fallow" year before the start of the war, Emmeline Pankhurst was jailed and Emily Davison killed as they campaigned for women's rights.John PetrieLeeds

• Your leader headline (5 January) on the Labour party and its plans for welfare benefits was: "Something old, something new". I fear "something borrowed, something blue" would have been better.David BeakeWymondham, Norfolk

• My year 5 class seem quite happy with "peeps" as a form of address (Letters, 7 January). A short explanation about Harry Enfield's Stavros satisfied the curious, although it lost something in the telling.Kim KingGlynde, East Sussex